For many languages it may be difficult to find an example, because of difficulties in establishing when a language became distinct, or because there are doubts about dating, or because there are insufficient grounds to judge which of several roughly contemporary documents is earliest. Nonetheless clear and well-known examples exist for many languages.

Pages in category "Earliest known manuscripts by language"

The following 38 pages are in this category, out of 38 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).

1.
List of languages by first written accounts
–
This is a list of languages arranged by the approximate dates of the oldest existing texts recording a complete sentence in the language. It does not include undeciphered scripts, though there are various claims without wide acceptance and it also does not include inscriptions consisting of isolated words or names from a language. An oral tradition of poetry may typically bridge a few centuries. An extreme case is the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda, the earliest parts of text may date to c.1500 BC, while the oldest known manuscript dates to the 11th century AD. Similarly the oldest Avestan texts, the Gathas, are believed to have been composed before 1000 BC, because of the way languages change gradually, it is usually impossible to pinpoint when a given language began to be spoken. In many cases, some form of the language had already been considerably earlier than the dates of the earliest extant samples provided here. For languages that have developed out of a predecessor, dates provided here are subject to conventional terminology. For example, Old French developed gradually out of Vulgar Latin, similarly, Danish and Swedish separated from common Old East Norse in the 12th century, while Norwegian separated from Old West Norse around 1300. Writing first appeared in the Near East at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, in East Asia towards the end of the second millennium BC, the Sino-Tibetan family was represented by Old Chinese. In the Early Iron Age, alphabetic writing spread across the Near East, with the emergence of the Brahmic family of scripts, languages of India are attested from after about 300 BC. There is only evidence for languages such as Iberian, Tartessian, Galatian, Thracian and Messapian. The North Picene language of the Novilara Stele from c.600 BC has not been deciphered, the earliest examples of the Central American Isthmian script date from c.500 BC, but a proposed decipherment remains controversial. From Late Antiquity, we have for the first time languages with earliest records in manuscript tradition, thus, Old Armenian is first attested in the Armenian Bible translation. The Vimose inscriptions in the Elder Futhark runic alphabet appear to record Proto-Norse names, some scholars interpret the Negau helmet inscription as a Germanic fragment. The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 124–231, baldi, Philip, The Foundations of Latin, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-017208-9. The Shang, Chinas first historical dynasty, in Loewe, Michael, Shaughnessy, the Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 232–291, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8. Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge University Press, cretan Writing in the Second Millennium B. C. Pollock, Sheldon, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men, Sanskrit, Culture, Language in ancient Europe, an introduction, in Woodard, Roger D

2.
Human language
–
Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system. The scientific study of language is called linguistics, questions concerning the philosophy of language, such as whether words can represent experience, have been debated since Gorgias and Plato in Ancient Greece. Thinkers such as Rousseau have argued that language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from rational and logical thought, 20th-century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that philosophy is really the study of language. Major figures in linguistics include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky, estimates of the number of languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. However, any precise estimate depends on an arbitrary distinction between languages and dialects. Natural languages are spoken or signed, but any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli – for example, in whistling, signed and this is because human language is modality-independent. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings, human language has the properties of productivity and displacement, and relies entirely on social convention and learning. Its complex structure affords a wider range of expressions than any known system of animal communication. Language is processed in different locations in the human brain. Humans acquire language through interaction in early childhood, and children generally speak fluently when they are approximately three years old. The use of language is deeply entrenched in human culture, a group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family. The languages of the Dravidian family that are mostly in Southern India include Tamil. Academic consensus holds that between 50% and 90% of languages spoken at the beginning of the 21st century will probably have become extinct by the year 2100. The English word language derives ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s tongue, speech, language through Latin lingua, language, tongue, and Old French language. The word is used to refer to codes, ciphers. Unlike conventional human languages, a language in this sense is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information. This article specifically concerns the properties of human language as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics. As an object of study, language has two primary meanings, an abstract concept, and a specific linguistic system, e. g. French

3.
Abrogans
–
It was named by German researchers after its first entry, abrogans = dheomodi. On several occasions the South Tyrolean bishop Arbeo of Freising or the Benedictine monk Kero are named as authors and this Latin-Latin glossary, the Latin Abrogans, was probably compiled in Italy of numerous older late-antiquity and early medieval glossaries. Thus arose a dictionary in which rare expressions, above all from biblical Latin, were explained, the dictionary was likely finally translated into German in the second half of the 8th century in the old Bavarian bishopric Freising, which came under control of the bishop Arbeo. At the same time both the Latin key word and its Latin reproduction were entered with the Old High German equivalents. For example, This was a process which around the middle of the 8th century many times had to lead to poor translations, nevertheless, the Abrogans offers tremendous material for linguistics, which still today is not yet completely analyzed. So there are about 700 words that no longer appear in any other Old High German texts. No specimens from the time of origin of the glossary in the 8th century have been saved, only three younger Alemannic copies of the Bavarian document are preserved. The best, albeit mangled handwriting is the copy of the archetype that was made around 810 in Murbach for Charlemagne or in Regensburg under Bishop Baturich. Bernhard Bischoff, Die „Abrogans“-Handschrift der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen

4.
Atakur inscription
–
The Atakur inscription dated 949-950 C. E. is an inscribed memorial stone with classical Kannada composition inscription. It was discovered at the Chelleshvara temple at Atakur village about 23 km from Mandya city in the Karnataka state, India. According to historians I. K. Sarma and Singh memorial stones for warriors are common in medieval India, the many battles fought between the Rashtrakuta dynasty and the Cholas of Tanjore have been the subject of many a medieval hero stone. Manlarata, whom the inscription refers to as Valabhipuravaresvara was able to drive the Chola armies away while King Butuga II, riding an elephant on the battlefield, in the inscription, the Rashtrakuta Emperor Krishna III showeres high praise on Butuga II for his achievement. Manalarata, whose valor is poetically described in the inscription requested Butuga II to give him the brave hound in return for his exploits on the battlefield. In a separate incident, during a hunt, the hound was involved in a fight with a boar in a trench near the village of Beltur leading to the death of both animals in the conflict. This inscribed memorial stone was erected by a grief-stricken Manlarata in honor of the brave dog, the inscription warns the local priest of sin if he were to have his food before offering worship to the memorial stone. According to historian Settar, the mentioned in the inscription is a Shaiva priest where as Ferdinand Kittel considers him a Shaiva mendicant. Butuga II gifted his faithful warrior Manlarata the villages of Atakur-12, the Making of Southern Karnataka, Society, Polity and Culture in the early medieval period, AD 400–1030. Temples of the Gangas of Karnataka, new Delhi, Archaeological Survey of India. Encyclopaedia of Indian literature – vol 2, a History of Ancient and Early Medieval India, From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency vol.1, part II, History of the Konkan Dakhan, Indian epigraphy, the inscriptional bases of Indian historical research. The Kadamba Kula, A History of Ancient and Medieval Karnataka, new Delhi, Madras, Asian Educational Services. In Hultzsch, E. Epigraphia Indica and Record of the Archæological Survey of India, calcutta, Government of India Central Print

5.
Bir el Qutt inscriptions
–
Georgian inscriptions were found on a mosaic floor. Two inscriptions are dated AD430 and the third one AD532, the monastery where the inscriptions were excavated was founded or rebuilt by the Georgian philosopher and royal prince Peter the Iberian. One of the inscriptions mentions him with his father, the other inscription mentions Bacurius the Iberian who is thought to be a possible grandfather of Peter. So far, the first two carvings are the oldest extant Georgian inscriptions, the inscriptions are kept at the museum of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. Inscription 2 mentioning Peter the Iberian is currently missing, Translation, Jesus Christ, have mercy on Bakur and Griormizd and their descendants. Dated, AD430 Translation, Saint Theodore, have mercy on Maruan and Burzen, Amen. Dated, AD430 Translation, With the help of Jesus Christ and Saint Theodore, God have mercy on Abba Antony and Iosia the layer of this mosaic and the father and mother of Iosia, Amen

6.
Birch bark letter no. 292
–
The birch bark letter given the document number 292 is the oldest known document in any Finnic language. The document is dated to the beginning of the 13th century and it was found in 1957 by a Soviet expedition led by Artemiy Artsikhovsky in the Nerevsky excavation on the left coast side of Novgorod. It is currently located in Novgorod City Museum, the text is written in Cyrillic in the Karelian dialect of the archaic Finnish or Finnic language. In English, this means roughly the following, Gods arrow, yeliseyev believes, that this is an invocation against lightning, as evidenced by ten your names construction. According to superstitious notions, knowledge of the name gives a human the magic power over an object or phenomenon, as the orthography used does not utilize spaces between words, the source text can be transcribed into words in different ways. In English, this means roughly the following, Gods arrow, mans arrow, †Syyttö-Jumala could also mean Blaming God or God that blames, modern Finnish syyttää = to blame or prosecute. 292, Journal of the Folklore Institute,1964, JSTOR3814030 Haavio, Martti, Tuohikirje n, o 292

7.
Black Book of Carmarthen
–
The Black Book of Carmarthen is thought to be the earliest surviving manuscript written solely in Welsh. It is currently part of the collection of the National Library of Wales and it is believed that the manuscript is first recorded when it came into the possession of Sir John Price of Brecon, whose work was to search the monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII. It was given to him by the treasurer of St Davids Cathedral, Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin was described by William Forbes Skene as one of the Four Ancient Books of Wales. Written before 1250, the manuscript is a small, incomplete, vellum codex of 54 folios in eight gatherings, the opening folios, written in a large textura on alternating ruled lines, are followed by folios in a much smaller, cramped script. One of the poems, The Elegy of Gereint son of Erbin, refers to the Battle of Llongborth, the location of which can no longer be pinpointed, in 2002, it was announced that the Black Book had been scanned, and made available online. In 2014 it was suggested an interactive display about the book could be created in Carmarthens St Peters Church, in March 2015, University of Cambridge Professor Paul Russell and Ph. D. Jarman, A. O. H. Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, a diplomatic edition of the original text. An introduction with translations of some of the poems, accompanied by corresponding reproductions of the J Evans diplomatic text, the Black Book of Carmarthen at the National Library of Wales. Gives access to images of Peniarth MS1. The Black Book of Carmarthen at the Celtic Literature Collective, uses Skenes incomplete and inaccurate translation from 1848. Full list of poems with translations at the Celtic Literature Collective, the diplomatic edition of the complete MS

8.
Bogurodzica
–
Bogurodzica is the oldest Polish hymn. It was composed somewhere between the 10th and 13th centuries, while the origin of the song is not entirely clear, several scholars agree that Adalbert of Prague is the likely author. Polish knights sang it as an anthem before the Battle of Grunwald, Bogurodzica also accompanied the coronation ceremonies of the first Jagiellonian kings. It was recorded in writing at the beginning of the 15th century, two records preserved till today date back to that time, the Kcynia record including two initial stanzas together with musical notation, the Kraków record covering thirteen stanzas without notes. Other records date back to the half of the fifteenth century. In 1509 the song was printed in Kraków in Jan Łaskis Statut, the origin of the song is not clear, although St Adalbert is a likely author. It used to be related either to Latin liturgy, the tradition of church hymns, Greek or Old Church Slavonic influences, Western or Eastern culture. The two initial stanzas were created first - probably in the middle or at the end of the thirteenth century, Bogurodzica is a prayer hymn whose first stanza contains an invocation to Christ through the intercession of Mary. It begins with an apostrophe to her - to the Mother of Christ, the Virgin, praised by God, after the apostrophe, there is an appeal to Mary to win favour for people from her Son. The second stanza begins with a direct addresses to Christ - with an invocation to John the Baptist who can support human imploring, the prayer closing this stanza contains a request that Christ give people a blissful stay on earth and, after death, everlasting existence in heaven. The subsequent stanzas develop various motifs, Easter, the Passion, Bogurodzica was initially connected with the mass and procession but already in the fifteenth century it became a knights battle hymn. Thanks to Jan Długosz we know that it was sung at Grunwald in 1410 as well as other battles in subsequent years. It also accompanied the coronation ceremonies of Władysław III of Poland and that is why Długosz called Bogurodzica carmen patrium. In the next centuries the hymn lost its significance and it regained its position of carmen patrium in the nineteenth century and has held it to the present day. J. Woronczak, wstęp językoznawczy E. Ostrowska, oprac, analiza tekstu, treści i formy, Lwów 1937. Problemy czasu powstania i tła kulturalnego, w, Prace z dziejów języka polskiego, a. Czyż, Bogurodzica - między Wschodem i Zachodem. Kilka myśli o duchowej jedności Europy, w, Światło i słowo

9.
Cartularies of Valpuesta
–
The Cartularies of Valpuesta are two medieval Spanish cartularies which belonged to a monastery in the locality of Valpuesta in what is now the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. The cartularies are called the Gótico and the Galicano from the type of script used in each and they are housed in the National Archives of Spain. The Cartularies of Valpuesta are a series of 12th-century Visigothic documents which, in turn, are copies of earlier documents and these cartularies contain an abundance of words of a developing Romance dialect and a copious list of place names in the Valley of Gaubea and the surrounding area. Probably no other codex of that period offers so many tokens of an incipient Romance language with similarities with modern Spanish, the scribes did not write in pure, erudite Latin, but rather in a more evolved, Romance-like Latin, to be better understood by the common people. They are written in a late form of Latin mixed with other elements of a Hispanic Romance dialect that corresponds in some traits with modern Spanish. The preamble of the Statue of Autonomy of Castile and León mentions the cartularies, along with the Nodicia de Kesos, however, there have been other documents with a claim to being the earliest in Spanish, notably, the Glosas Emilianenses. Selections from the oldest documents were published in 1900 in the French journal Revue Hispanique, the cartularies are available in a recent scholarly edition. Los Cartularios de Santa María de Valpuesta

10.
Dipylon Inscription
–
The Dipylon inscription is a short text written on an ancient Greek pottery vessel dated to ca.740 BC. It is famous for being the oldest known samples of the use of the Greek alphabet, the jug is attributed to the Late Geometrical Period. It is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the text is written in an archaic form of the Greek alphabet, with some letter shapes still resembling those of the original Phoenician alphabet. It is written right to left, with the individual letters mirror-shaped in comparison with the modern forms. It is placed in a circle around the shoulder of the vessel, the text consists of 46 characters, of which the first 35 can easily be read as an hexametric verse in Greek. The fragmentary rest is believed to have been the beginning of the verse of a distichon. The text marks the vessel as a prize in a dancing competition and it is translated as, whoever of the dancers now dances most lightly. And the second line is conjectured to have something to the effect of. He shall get me as his prize, literal translation, Whoever of all these dancers now plays most delicately, to him this. It is believed that either the Dipylon inscription or the so-called Nestor Cup is the oldest known alphabetic Greek inscription, the Nestor Cup, which also bears a verse inscription, was found in an excavation at the ancient Greek colony of Pithekoussai on the island of Ischia in Italy. It is thought to be of age with the Dipylon inscription or slightly younger. History of the Greek alphabet Pottery of Ancient Greece Powell, B, the Dipylon Oinochoe Inscription and the Spread of Literacy in 8th Century Athens, Kadmos,27, 65–86. Η γραφή, in Kopidakis, M. Z. Ιστορία της ελληνικης γλώσσας, Athens, Elliniko Logotechniko kai Istoriko Archeio, bibliotheca Augustana corpus, Online text and image Epigraphical database, Online text

11.
Doddahundi nishidhi inscription
–
The Doddahundi nishidhi and inscription is a hero stone from Doddahundi,18 km from Tirumakudalu Narasipura in the Mysore district, Karnataka state, India. It has an undated old Kannada language inscription which historians J. F. Fleet, I. K. Sarma, rice have dated by context to 840 or 869 C. E. The hero stone has a depiction in frieze of the ritual death of the Western Ganga Dynasty king Ereganga Nitimarga I. The memorial was raised by the kings son Satyavakya, such nishidhis were raised in medieval India in honor of important Jain personalities who ended their life voluntarily after following severe ritual vow. The Western Ganga period produced not only imposing and well sculptured pillars, according to historian and epigraphist J. F. Fleet who edited the inscription, the names in the record are titles and he dated the inscription to 840 C. E. with the opinion that the Nitimarga in the inscription is actually Ranavikrama, son of King Sripurusha. In Jainism, the term nishidhi is the spot where the person, such as an ascetic, king or queen died voluntarily, such places were held in high regard, a pedestal created and prayers offered regularly. Often, the nishidhigal was nothing more than a rock surface or a boulder. Inscribed on the nishidhigal were epitaphs that immortalized and described the scholarly and saintly achievements of the deceased one, nishidhis dated to as early as the 7th century exist in the Shravanabelagola hills. One memorial raised by King Sripurusha for Mahaprabhu Gopayya dates from the 8th century, the Doddahundi nishidhi is one of the most noteworthy examples found from the Western Ganga period. The dying king, who exudes a calm countanence, is lying on a couch with his head on a pillow and is attended to by his personal guard Agarayya. An agitated Prince Satyavakya stands behind the king with a dagger, the inscription below the frieze reads bee at the pair of lotus feet of Arhat Bhattaraka. Jainism in Karnataka Jainism in north Karnataka Jainism in Tulu Nadu Sarma, temples of the Gangas of Karnataka. New Delhi, Archaeological Survey of India, in Hultzsch, E. Epigraphia Indica, Archæological Survey of India, Volume VIII

12.
Duenos inscription
–
The Duenos inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, variously dated from the 7th to the 5th century BC. It is inscribed on the sides of a kernos, in case a trio of small globular vases adjoined by three clay struts. It was found by Heinrich Dressel in 1880 on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, the kernos belongs to the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The inscription is written right to left in three units, without spaces to separate words and it is difficult to translate, as some letters are hard to distinguish, particularly since they cannot always be deduced by context. The absence of spaces causes additional difficulty in assigning the letters to the respective words, there have been many proposed translations advanced by scholars since the discovery of the kernos, Arthur E. Gordon in 1983 estimated their number as over fifty, no two in full agreement. However thanks to Gordons work the reading of the text can be now considered certain, below is the transcription and one of many possible interpretations, a. the direct transcription b. direct transcription with possible macrons and word breaks c. A speculative interpretation and translation into Classical Latin d. an English translation of that transcription, interpretation and translation, IOVESATDEIVOSQOIMEDMITATNEITEDENDOCOSMISVIRCOSIED b. iouesāt deivos qoi mēd mitāt, nei tēd endō cosmis vircō siēd c. Iurat deos qui me mittit, ni in te comis virgo sit d, the person who sends me prays to the gods, lest the girl be not kind towards thee Line 2, a. ASTEDNOISIOPETOITESIAIPAKARIVOIS b. as tēd noisi opetoit esiāi pākā riuois c. at te paca rivis d. without thee calm with rivers Line 3, DVENOSMEDFECEDENMANOMEINOMDVENOINEMEDMALOSTATOD b. duenos mēd fēced en mānōm einom duenōi nē mēd malo statōd c. Bonus me fecit in manum einom bono, ne me malus d, a good man made me in his own. Hands for a man, in case an evil man take me. An interpretation set out by Warmington and Eichner, renders the complete translation as follows and it is sworn with the gods, whence Im issued, If a maiden does not smile at you,2. Nor is strongly attracted to you, then soothe her with this fragrance, someone good has filled me for someone good and well-mannered, and not shall I be obtained by someone bad. Duenos is a form of the Latin word bonus, meaning good. Some scholars posit Duenos as a name, instead of merely an adjective. Although these claims have been disproven, as a new analysis performed in 2011 declared it to be genuine beyond any reasonable doubt, the inscription is scratched along the side of the body of three vases made of dark brown bucchero, connected with each other by short cylindric arms. It is written right to left spiralling downwards about 1. Some letters are written in a fashion that appears influenced by Greek

13.
Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany
–
The Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany is a document known for including the oldest written words in the Hungarian language. The document, dated to 1055, lists the lands the king donated to the newly founded Tihany Abbey and it is mostly in Latin, but contains several Hungarian words and expressions, the longest of which is feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea. The Benedictine abbey of Tihany was founded by King Andrew I and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the establishing charter is likely to have been composed by Bishop Nicholas. The Benedictine monks were settled in Tihany by King Andrew, who had a church, the charter, written on vellum, is today in the Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma. The road mentioned must have been a road from Roman times. It was the most important road from Fehérvár to the south, Fehérvár – today Székesfehérvár – was one of the most important cities of medieval Hungary. The Hungarian words in the text reflect 11th century Hungarian language, not only proper nouns, but common nouns and expressions are included. In total, the document includes 58 Hungarian words, among them Tichon, funeral Sermon and Prayer, the oldest existing text written completely in Hungarian Lamentations of Mary, the oldest existing poem in Hungarian PDF copy of the document Mons Sacer 996-1996. Pannonhalma,1996 Browsing by Citation Tanulmányok a 950 éves Tihanyi alapítólevél tiszteletére / Szerkesztő, - Tihany, Tihanyi Bencés Apátság,2007 Géza Bárczi, A tihanyi apátság alapítólevele mint nyelvi emlék. Bencés kiadó István Hoffmann, A Tihanyi alapítólevél három szórványáról, Huluoodi, Turku, Ursa

14.
Freising manuscripts
–
The Freising manuscripts are the first Latin-script continuous text in a Slavic language and the oldest document in Slovene. The manuscripts were bound into a Latin codex. Four parchment leaves and a quarter of a page have been preserved. They consist of three texts in the oldest Slovene dialect, linguistic, stylistic and contextual analyses reveal that these are church texts of careful composition and literary form. The precise date of the origin of the Freising Manuscripts cannot be exactly determined, in this liturgic and homiletic manuscript, three Slovene records were found and this miscellany was probably an episcopal manual. The Freising Manuscripts in it were created between 972 and 1039, most likely before 1000, the main support for this dating is the writing, which was used in the centuries after Charlemagne and is named Carolingian minuscule. During the time of the writing of the two manuscripts, Bishop Abraham was active in Freising and it is believed that the manuscripts were written in the Möll River Valley in Carinthia. The manuscripts were discovered in Freising, Bavaria, the Slovene name Brižinski spomeniki was coined by the Carinthian Slovene philologist Anton Janežič, who Slovenized the German name Freising to Brižinj in 1854. In 1803, the manuscript came to the Bavarian State Library in Munich, the texts were translated into modern Slovene in 1854 by the philologist Anton Janežič. Before World War II, a facsimile of the Freising Manuscripts was published by Silvester Škerl at Akademska založba in Ljubljana, the manuscripts are still kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich and have left it only twice. In the 1970s, they were exhibited in the Vatican Museums, in May and June 2004, they were exhibited at the National and University Library in Ljubljana. Scholarly Digital Editions of Slovenian Literature, scientific Research Centre, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Contains a historical overview of the manuscripts, a series of studies and commentaries, presents the manuscripts and contains links to the digitised versions kept by the library

16.
Gezer calendar
–
The Gezer calendar is a small inscribed limestone tablet discovered in 1908 by Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister in the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer,20 miles west of Jerusalem. Scholars are divided as to whether the language is Phoenician or Hebrew, the calendar is inscribed on a limestone plaque and describes monthly or bi-monthly periods and attributes to each a duty such as harvest, planting, or tending specific crops. Another possibility is something designed for the collection of taxes from farmers, the scribe of the calendar is probably Abijah, which means Yah is my father. This name appears in the Bible for several individuals, including a king of Judah, the calendar was discovered in 1908 by R. A. S. Macalister of the Palestine Exploration Fund while excavating the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer,20 miles west of Jerusalem, a replica of the Gezer calendar is on display at the Israel Museum, Israel. List of artifacts significant to the Bible List of ancient Near Eastern scribes List of languages by first written accounts Archaeology of Israel Albright, the Gezer Calendar in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Sivan, Daniel The Gezer calendar and Northwest Semitic linguistics, Israel Exploration Journal 48, an up-to-date linguistic analysis of this text. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East vol,2, Editor in Chief Eric M. Meyers, 396–400. New York, Oxford University Press,1997, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East vol. 2, Editor in Chief Eric M. Meyers, 396–400, new York, Oxford University Press,1997. Details of the calendar including transcription and translation, archived 4 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine. Another translation and a picture of the calendar

17.
Glosas Emilianenses
–
The Glosas Emilianenses are glosses written in a Latin codex. These marginalia are important as early examples of writing in a form of Spanish, the anonymous author is assumed to have been a monk at the monastery now known as Suso, one of the twin monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla. The Glosses were formerly considered to include the first instances of early Spanish, the codex is known as Aemilianensis 60 and was preserved in the monastery library at Yuso. Its significance was recognised in the twentieth century when it was brought to the attention of the philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal. The manuscripts current location is the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid, the longest gloss appears on page 72 of the manuscripts. The Spanish philologist Dámaso Alonso called this prayer the first cry of the Spanish language. Old text Con o aiutorio de nuestro dueno Christo, dueno salbatore, facanos Deus Omnipotes tal serbitio fere ke denante ela sua face gaudioso segamus. Translation With the help of our Lord Christ, Lord Savior, Lord who is in honor, Lord that has command with the Father, god Omnipotent, make us do such a service that before His face joyful we are. Comparison of some words used in the glosses, along with their current corresponding forms in Aragonese, Spanish, Aemilianensis 60 has been publicized as the earliest known codex with inscriptions in Basque, though other codices are posited. Only two of the glosses in Aemilianensis 60 are actually in Basque and these short texts can be seen on the 1974 plaque. However, it has suggested that some of the Romance glosses reflect the influence of the Basque language. Spanish language Monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla Navarro-Aragonese dialect Early Spanish Literature and the Middle Ages Basque Language Wikisource, Glosas Emilianenses

18.
Halmidi inscription
–
The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known Kannada language inscription in the Kannada script. While estimates vary slightly, the inscription is dated to between 450 CE -500 CE. The inscription was discovered in 1936 by Dr. M. H. Krishna, the Director of Archaeology of the State of Mysore, in Halmidi, a village in the Hassan district. The original inscription is kept in the Office of the Director of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Karnataka, Mysore, in a report published in a Mysore Archaeological Department Report in 1936, Krishna dated the inscription to 450 AD, on paleographical grounds. Later scholars have dated the inscription to 450 AD,470 AD,500 AD, about 500. Sircar has dated the inscription to about the end of the 6th century, Epigraphist G. S. Gai however disagrees with the view that Halmidi is a record of the Kadamba dynasty identified with King Kadamba Kakusthavarman. The inscription is in verse form indicating the authors of the inscription had a sense of the language structure. The inscription is written in pre-old Kannada, which evolved into old Kannada, middle Kannada. The Halmidi inscription is the earliest evidence of the usage of Kannada as an administrative language, the pillar on which the inscription was written stands around 4 feet high. The following lines are carved on the front of the pillar,1, jayati śri-pariṣvāṅga-śārṅga vyānatir-acytāḥ dānav-akṣṇōr-yugānt-āgniḥ śiṣṭānān=tu sudarśanaḥ2. Namaḥ śrīmat=kadaṁbapan=tyāga-saṁpannan kalabhōranā ari ka-3, sutange sēndraka-bāṇ=ōbhayadēśad=ā vīra-puruṣa-samakṣa-11. de kēkaya-pallavaraṁ kād=eṟidu pettajayan=ā vija 12. Arasange bāḷgaḻcu palmaḍiuṁ mūḷivaḷuṁ ko-13, irvvaruṁ saḻbaṅgadar vijārasaruṁ palmaḍige kuṟu-15. Mbiḍi viṭṭār adān aḻivornge mahāpatakam svasti The following line is carved on the left face,16. Pp.346 Gai, Govind Swamirao, Inscriptions of the early Kadambas, New Delhi, Indian Council of Historical Research and Pratibha Prakashan. Pp. xv,170,88 plates, ISBN 81-85268-47-9 Habib, Irfan, India, in Al-Bhakhit, M. A. Bazin, L. A. Cissoko, S. M. History of Humanity, Volume IV, from the Seventh to the Sixteenth century, Paris, UNESCO and London, Routledge. Literary Cultures and the Material Book, London, British Library, pp. 77–94, ISBN 0-7123-0684-6 Ramesh, K. V. Indian Epigraphy, Sundeep Sircar, D. C. Indian Epigraphy, Motilal Banarsidass Publications, ISBN 978-8-1208-1166-9 Stein, Burton, Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India, Oxford and New York, pp. Bangalore, The Government Press,1938

19.
Kavirajamarga
–
Kavirajamarga is the earliest available work on rhetoric, poetics and grammar in the Kannada language. It was written by the famous Rashtrakuta King Nrupatunga Amoghavarsha I, some historians believe Kavirajamarga may have been co-authored by a poet in the kings court, the Kannada language theorist Sri Vijaya. The name literally means Royal Path for Poets and was written as a book for poets. From references made in writing to earlier Kannada poetry and literature it is clear that a considerable body of work in prose. The pre-coronation name of Amoghavarsha I was Sharva and he was born in Sribhavan in 800 to Rashtrakuta King Govinda III during the kings return from his successful northern campaigns in Kanauj. This is known from the Manne records, Sirur plates and Sanjan records of Amoghavarsha I, the aim of this writing was to standardize these written styles. The book dwells on earlier styles of composition, the Bedande, the Chattana, and the Gadyakatha, the term pruvacharyar has also been used. But the works and compositions of early authors are yet to be discovered. Kavirajamarga was formative in the growth of Kannada and is a guide book to the Kannada grammar that existed in that period. It laid the path for guiding many aspiring writers. In his criticism, Amoghavarsha I writes that old Kannada is appropriate in ancient poems but is insipid in works of the present time and he also condemned the usage of expletives such as ante, matte, and gadam

20.
Kedukan Bukit inscription
–
It is the oldest surviving specimen of the Malay language, in a form known as Old Malay. It is a stone of 45 by 80 cm. This inscription is dated the year 11,02,605 Saka and these inscriptions were written in a sister system of Vatteluttu and Grantha called the Pallava alphabet, developed by ancient Tamils to write Tamil and contain numerous Sanskrit words. Di pantshami shuklapaksa Wulan <. > Laghu mudik datang marwuat manua <. > Syriwijaya jayasiddhayatra subhiksa, dalam Syaka 605 Sebelas hari Bulan Waisyaka. Di lima hari Bulan <. > Belayar mudik datang membuat benua <. > Srivijaya kota yang jaya, detailed translation, Salam bahagia, batu bersurat ini ditulis pada hari ke-11 bulan Waisyaka Tahun 605 Syaka, Baginda menaiki kapal untuk mencari untungnya pada 7 hari di bulan Jyestha. Baginda berlepas dari Muara Tamvan dengan membawa dua puluh ribu bala dengan <. > serta dua ratus pawang dan tentera sebanyak seribu tiga ratus dua belas banyaknya dengan sukacitanya datang ke Matajap. Pada lima haribulan <. >, mereka datang belayar mudik ke hulu untuk membuka negara <. >, Srivijaya, kota yang jaya, bahagia dan makmur. In the year 605 of the Saka calendar, on the day in the month of Waisaka. On the seventh day on the moon of Jyesta, His Majesty brings 20000 troops and 312 people in boats from firth of Tamvan, With 1312 foot soldiers. On the fifth day on the moon of. They docked and open a country, in the year 605 of the Saka calendar, on the eleventh day at half-moon of Waisaka, Sri Baginda took dugouts in order to obtain siddhayatra. On Day 7, on the 15th day at half-moon of Jyestha and he took 20,000 troops with him … as many as 200 in dugouts, with 1,312 foot soldiers. They arrived at … Truly merry on the day of the half-moon…, agile, happy. Safiah Karim, Tatabahasa Dewan Edisi Baharu, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka 1993

21.
Kievian Letter
–
The Kievian Letter is an early 10th-century letter thought to be written by representatives of the Jewish community in Kiev. The letter, a Hebrew-language recommendation written on behalf of one member of their community, was part of a collection brought to Cambridge by Solomon Schechter from the Cairo Geniza. It was discovered in 1962 during a survey of the Geniza documents by Norman Golb of the University of Chicago, the letter is dated by most scholars to around 930 CE. Some think that the dates from a time when Khazars were no longer a dominant force in the politics of the city. According to Marcel Erdal, the letter does not hail from Kiev but was sent to Kiev, some scholars point to a district in Kievan Podil named after the Khazars, which indicates to some that Turkic Khazars did live in Kiev. The Khazars apparently played a significant role in the vitality of the city, importing caviar, fish. The identity and status of the reviewing, turcophone officer is therefore ambiguous and it would seem more likely that the letter was reviewed in Khazaria at a time when Khazar Jewish power had waned not only in Kiev but in the heartland itself. Linguists are interested in the letter because the names of the community members are of Turkic, Slavic, there is some disagreement as to whether these Jews were Israelites who had taken local names, or whether their names indicate Turkic or Slavic origins. The debate is complicated by the presence of the name Kiabar Kohen, according to Omeljan Pritsak, this name indicates that non-Israelite Khazars adopted the status of Kohen, possibly because they had formed a pre-conversion priestly caste. Recent studies determined that at least one of the names of signatories is Slavic, now, our officers and masters, we, community of Kiev, (hereby inform you of the woesome affair of this Mar Jacob bar Hanukah, who is of the sons of. He was of the givers, and not of the takers, until a decree was decreed against him, in that his brother went and took money from gentiles. His brother went on the road, and there came brigands who slew him, then came creditors ook captive this Jacob, they put chains of iron on his neck and irons about his legs. He stayed there an entire year and we took him in surety, we paid out sixty and there ye remained forty coins, so we have sent him among the holy communities that they might take pity on him. So now, O our masters, raise up your eyes to heaven and do as is your goodly custom, for you know how great is the virtue of charity. Only be strong and of courage, and do not put our words behind your backs. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century, the Kievan Letter scan in the Cambridge University Library collection. Khazarian Rovas inscription on the Kievien Letter in the book Heritage of Scribes and it is fully available from Google Books at https, //books. google. hu/books. id=TyK8azCqC34C&pg=PA173 Napolskikh V. The “Kievan letter” and the alleged Khazarian rule in Kiev

22.
Myazedi inscription
–
Myazedi inscription, inscribed in 1113, is the oldest surviving stone inscription of the Burmese. Myazedi means emerald stupa, and the name of the inscription comes from a pagoda located nearby, the inscriptions were made in four languages, Burmese, Pyu, Mon, and Pali, which all tell the story of Prince Yazakumar and King Kyansittha. The primary importance of the Myazedi inscription is that the allowed for the deciphering of the written Pyu language. There are two inscriptions in Burma today. One exists on the platform of the Myazedi Pagoda, in the village of Myinkaba, the other was discovered by German Pali scholar Dr. Emil Forchammar in 1886-1887, and is currently in display at the Bagan Archaeological Museum. Nishida Tatsuo 西田龍雄 Myazedki 碑文における中古ビルマ語の研究 Myazedi hibu ni okeru chūko biruma go no kenkyū, Studies in the later ancient Burmese Language through Myazedi Inscriptions. 古代學 Kodaigaku Palaeologia 4.1, 17-31 and 5.1, 22-40. 古ビルマ語資料におけるミャゼディ碑文<1112年>の古ビルマ語 / Kobirumago shiryō ni okeru myazedi hibun senhyakujūninen no kobirumago ōbī / Old Burmese of Myazedi inscription in OB materials, Osaka, Osaka University of Foreign Studies

23.
Nestor's Cup
–
The term Cup of Nestor or Nestors Cup can refer to, A golden mixing cup, described in Homers Iliad, belonging to Nestor, the king of Pylos. A golden goblet, found at Mycenae, which the excavator, Heinrich Schliemann, a clay drinking vessel of the 8th century BC found at Pithekoussai, Ischia, which bears a famous inscription calling itself Nestors cup. The Iliad of Homer describes a magnificent golden cup that belongs to Nestor, the king of Pylos, Beside these she set a cup, there were four handles on it, around each one a pair of golden doves was feeding. When that cup was full, another man could lift it from the table. In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann excavated Grave Circle A at Mycenae, Shaft Grave IV yielded the richest finds, and among these Schliemann found a golden vessel which he identified as the Cup of Nestor as described in the Iliad. Schliemann believed that the graves dated to the time of the Trojan War. However, Schliemanns identification of the graves with Homeric heroes was not accepted by many archaeologists in his own day. The shaft graves are dated to ca. 1600-1500 BC, some three centuries before the date of the Trojan War, thus the Cup of Nestor from Mycenae would have been buried hundreds of years before Nestor supposedly made use of it at Troy. The cup found at Mycenae differs from Homers description in several respects, the cup from Mycenae has two handles, whereas Homers cup has four. This cup is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Pithekoussai was one of the earliest Greek colonies in the West. The cup is dated to the Geometric Period and is believed to have been manufactured in Rhodes. It is now kept in the Villa Arbusto museum in the village of Lacco Ameno on the island of Ischia, the cup bears a three-line inscription that was scratched on its side at a later time, and it was later used as a burial gift for a young boy. The inscription is now famous as being one of the oldest known examples of writing in the Greek alphabet, both inscriptions are dated to c. 740-720 BC and have been linked to early writing in the island of Euboea. The inscription is fragmented, as some shards of the cup are lost and it is written in the early Euboean form of the Western Greek alphabet, written from right to left in three separate lines. Nestor’s cup, good to drink from, whoever drinks from this cup, him straightaway the desire of beautiful-crowned Aphrodite will seize. At the beginning, many scholars propose the restitution I am, the second and third lines form a hexameter verse each, with a perfect regular scansion. Modern scholars agree that the text is meant as a humorous contrast between the richness of the legendary Cup of Nestor and the simplicity of the drinking cup

24.
Novgorod Codex
–
The Novgorod Codex is the oldest book of the Rus’, unearthed on July 13,2000 in Novgorod. It is therefore older than the Ostromir Gospels, the earliest precisely dated East Slavic book, since 1932 the ancient Russian city of Novgorod has been continuously excavated by the Novgorod Archaeological Expedition started by Artemiy Artsikhovsky. Since the early 1970s the excavations focused on the Troitza area of the ancient Ludin part of town, the area excavated housed affluent mansions and a large 1,200 square meter communal building housed a court house and a Novgorod city treasury. The vast majority of text found in Novgorod were birch bark manuscripts, on July 13,2000, the expedition headed by prof. Valentin Yanin discovered three wooden wax tablets in the soil, the tablets were 19 x 15 x 1 cm, and they have a 15 x 11.5 cm indentation filled with wax. Two of the tablets have one wax layer and one blank side. The boards have round holes at one edge, through which wooden pegs were inserted, the tablets were discovered in a stratum 50 cm away and 30 cm below a wooden walkway dendrochronologically dated to the year 1036. As the strata in Novgorod are estimated to have grown at about 1 cm per year, subsequent radiocarbon dating of the wax at the Uppsala University in Sweden gave the range of 760 AD to 1030 AD with a 95. 4% certainty. The wax of the codex itself contains psalms 75 and 76 and this is the so-called basic text of the Novgorod Codex. Consequently, the book is known as the Novgorod Psalter. This text can be read as easily as any other document on parchment, the Psalter translation exhibits a somewhat different translatory tradition than the Slavonic translations of the Psalter known so far. The language of the Novgorod Codex is a very regular Church Slavonic, the method eventually decided on called for careful separation of the wax layer, and preserving each material separately. The newly exposed wood under the wax was found to have been extensively scratched by the stylus cutting through the thin wax. It took the team several weeks to realize that some symbols could be discerned in the scratches. Consequently, ‘reading’ a single concealed text of one page can take weeks, according to Zaliznyak, reading the concealed texts in the scratches is a unique challenge unlike anything attempted by any research team previously. The very compact surface of the four writing surfaces contains traces of thousands of texts, as such, the stylus traces form a constant mesh of lines across the entire surface. To complicate the process, they are all written by a single hand. As such, Zaliznyak does not call the process reading, instead, instead of asking himself the question, whats written on this line, Zaliznyak approaches the problem as is a phrase A or a word B possible among everything written in this sector

25.
Oaths of Strasbourg
–
The Oaths of Strasbourg were mutual pledges of allegiance between Louis the German, ruler of East Francia, and his half-brother Charles the Bald, ruler of West Francia made on 12 February 842. They are written in three different languages, Medieval Latin, Old French and Old High German, all in Caroline minuscule, the Old French passages are generally considered to be the earliest texts in a language that is distinctly French. The several pledges were spoken at a meeting on 12 February 842 at Strasbourg, with the brothers assembled armies in attendance. Louis spoke his oath in the Romance language, while Charles spoke his oath in lingua teudisca, the sole source for the wording of the oaths is Nithards Historiae or De dissensionibus filiorum Ludovici pii, where it is found in Chapter V of Book III. Nithards work is preserved in a manuscript from the 10th or 11th century, both kings first made the same preamble speech, which was a detailed complaint against Lothair. Each king then swore his oath in front of their assembled armies, not in Latin nor in his own language. Finally, the armies swore separate pledges in their respective languages, one version of the pledges was written in the Rhine Franconian dialect of Old High German. The second version is in a form of Proto-French, the preamble was also written in Latin, as were sections to report the ceremonies. The text is significant to both linguists and historians, linguistically, the text is the oldest document written in a Romance language, and specifically in a form of French. The documents also shed light on a significant period in the history of the Carolingian-Frankish empire, however, others of late have come to favour a different hypothesis, that the Frankish Kingdom comprised several regna that since ancient times had maintained different customs and dialects. The transcriptions are edited, with abbreviations written out and some punctuation, the image to the right is a scan of the original text. In the transcription below, two asterisks mark the beginning and end of the visible in this scan. Altfranzösisches Übungsbuch, zum Gebrauch bei Vorlesungen und Seminarübungen, ithaca and London, Cornell University Press. The Oaths of Strassburg, Phonemics and Classification, ludwig der Deutsche und seine Zeit. Lowe, Lawrence F. H. Edwards, Bateman, the Language of the Strassburg Oaths. The Romance Text of the Strassburg Oaths, was it Written in the Ninth Century

27.
Salic law
–
Salic law, or Salian Law, was the ancient Salian Frankish civil law code compiled around AD500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The best known tenet of the old law is the principle of exclusion of women from inheritance of thrones, fiefs, the Salic laws were arbitrated by a committee appointed and empowered by the King of the Franks. Dozens of manuscripts dating from the 6th to 8th centuries and three emendations as late as the 9th century have survived, Salic law provided written codification of both civil law, such as the statutes governing inheritance, and criminal law, such as the punishment for murder. The original edition of the code was commissioned by the first king of all the Franks, Clovis I, Salic Law therefore reflects ancient usages and practices. In order to more effectively, it was desirable that monarchs. The name of the code comes from the circumstance that Clovis was a Merovingian king ruling only the Salian Franks before his unification of Francia. The law must have applied to the Ripuarian Franks as well, however, containing only 65 titles, it may not have included any special Ripuarian laws. For the next 300 years the code was copied by hand and was amended as required to add newly enacted laws, revise laws that had been amended, and delete laws that had been repealed. More so than printing, hand copying is an act by an individual copyist with ideas. Each of the several dozen surviving manuscripts features a set of errors, corrections, content. The laws are called titles as each one has its own name, generally preceded by de, of, different sections of titles acquired individual names revealing something about their provenances. Some of these dozens of names have adopted for specific reference, often given the same designation as the overall work. The recension of Hendrik Kern organizes all of the manuscripts into five families according to similarity and relative chronological sequence, judged by content and dateable material in the text. Family I is the oldest, containing four manuscripts dated to the 8th and 9th centuries, in addition they feature the Malbergse Glossen, Malberg Glosses, marginal glosses stating the native court word for some Latin words. These are named from native malbergo, language of the court, kerns Family II, represented by two manuscripts, is the same as Family I, except it contains interpolations or numerous additions which point to a later period. Family III is split into two divisions, the first, comprising three manuscripts, dated to the 8th–9th centuries, presents an expanded text of 99 or 100 titles. The second, four manuscripts, not only drops the glosses, a statement gives the provenance, in the 13th year of the reign of our most glorious king of the Franks, Pipin. Some of the documents were composed after the reign of Pepin the Short, but it is considered to be an emendation initiated by Pepin

28.
Sinckan Manuscripts
–
The Sinckan Manuscripts refers to a series of leases, mortgages, and other commerce contracts written in the Sinckan language, they are commonly referred to as the fanzi contracts. Some are written only in a script, while others were bilingual with adjacent Han writing. The Sinckan language was spoken by the Siraya tribe that lived in what is now Tainan, during the time when Taiwan was under the administration of the Dutch East India Company, Dutch missionaries learned Sinckan to facilitate both missionary work and government affairs. They also created a script and compiled a dictionary of the language. In 1625, Maarten Sonck, the Dutch governor of Taiwan, however, the first group to arrive were visiting missionaries who did not have the authority to perform baptism rites. It was not until June 1627 that the first real minister, Rev. Georgius Candidius, arrived, the first area to be targeted, the Sinckan settlement, had many converts by 1630. In 1636, the Dutch started a school for the Sinckan that not only featured religious instruction, because the Dutch advocated missionary work to be done in the native language, the school was taught in the Sinckan language. These would become important sources for later research, the most important Sinckan documents were the contracts between the Sinckan and the Han settlers, commonly known as the Fanzi contracts. Although the Dutch only governed Taiwan for 38 years, they influenced the development of indigenous culture. To take the Sinckan Manuscripts as an example, the latest extant documents in the Sinckan script date back to 1813 and this is evidence to show that the arts of reading and writing introduced by the Dutch were handed down from generation to generation by the people themselves. Shortly after the founding of Taihoku Imperial University in 1928, one of the scholars in the department, Naoyoshi Ogawa. In 1931, Naojirō Murakami edited and published them under the title The Sinckan Manuscripts, the compilation contained 109 fanzi contracts, of which 87 were from the Sinckan settlement,21 of those were bilingual in Han characters and Sinckan

29.
Utendi wa Tambuka
–
Utend̠i wa Tambuka or Utenzi wa Tambuka, also known as Kyuo kya Hereḳali, is an epic poem in the Swahili language, dated 1728. It is one of the earliest known documents in Swahili, the Byzantines were represented by the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Heraclius. The story covers a period from 628 to 1453, Tambuka is the Swahili rendering of Tabuk, a city located in north-western Saudi Arabia. The oldest manuscript of the epic is dated 1141 on the Islamic Calendar and it was written at Yunga, a royal palace in the old city of Pate. In strophe 1124–1125, the notes that the king of Yung asked him to write an epic on the heroic deeds of the first followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The author identifies himself in one of the stanzas as Mwengo. Not much more is known about him other than that he wrote at the court of the Sultan of Pate, that he was no longer a man by 1728. He also had a son, Abu Bakr bin Mwengo, who wrote an imitation of his fathers epic somewhere in the middle of the 18th century, like other manuscripts of the period in Swahili, the Utendi wa Tambuka is written in Arabic script. The language used is a dialect of Swahili called Kiamu, some manuscripts, however, show influence from Kigunya, while others show traces of Kiunguja. The Utendi wa Tambuka is an example of the Swahili poetic form of utenzi. Utenzi verse form consists of four-line stanzas, with each line having eight syllables, the last syllables of the first three lines rhyme with each other, while the fourth line has a rhyme that is constant throughout the whole of the epic. This last rhyme thus serves to tie all stanzas of the epic together, most Swahili words have penultimate stress, resulting in every line having at least penultimate stress. Within a line of eight syllables there are no further meter requirements, the verse form can be illustrated by the first stanza of the poem, ) Bisimillahi kut̠ubu yina la Mola Wahhabu Arraḥamani eribu na Arraḥimu ukyowa The first three lines all end in -bu. The last syllable of the line ends in the vowel a. When recited, this last syllable is sustained for some time, the plot depicts a religious war between the Byzantines and the Muslims. The Prophet sends a letter to East Roman/Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, in which he tells him that the Byzantine belief that Jesus is the son of God is incorrect. Heraclius declares his intent to persevere in his adherence to Christianity on the grounds that the Byzantines have inherited their belief from their ancestors, the Muslims attack and, after epic struggles, eventually defeat the Byzantines. Heraclius minister and his associates are captured and once again given the choice to accept Islam or die, the central figure of the poem, and the most heroic one, is Ali ibn Abi Talib, a full nephew on the fathers side of the Prophet

30.
Veronese Riddle
–
It was a very popular riddle in the Middle Ages and has survived into dialects to date. Discovered by Luigi Schiaparelli in 1924, it is considered the first document ever written in the Italian language along with the Placiti Cassinesi and this person is the writer himself, the monk whose business is to copy old manuscripts. The two oxen are his fingers which draw a white feather across the page, leaving black ink marks and this document dates to the late 10th-early 11th century and was followed by a small thanksgiving prayer in Latin, gratias tibi agimus omnips sempiterne ds. These lines were written on codex LXXXIX of the Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona and it was then brought to Cagliari and then Pisa before reaching the Chapter of Verona. Many more European documents seem to confirm that the traits of Romance languages occurred all around the same time. Some words stick indeed to the rules of Latin grammar, yet more are distinctly Italian, with no cases and producing the typical ending of Italian verbs, pareba, araba, teneba, seminaba instead of Latin parebat, arabat, tenebat, seminabat. Albo versorio and negro semen have replaced Latin album versorium and nigrum semen, versorio is still the word for plow in todays Veronese dialect as the verb parar is still the word for push on, drive, lead. Michele A. Cortelazzo and Ivano Paccagnella say that the plural -es of boves may well be considered Ladin and therefore not Latin, albo is early Italian, especially since German blank entered Italian usage later, leading to current Italian bianco. Latin language Romance languages Venetian language Italian language Notes Indovinello Veronese Indovinello Veronese

List of languages by first written accounts
–
This is a list of languages arranged by the approximate dates of the oldest existing texts recording a complete sentence in the language. It does not include undeciphered scripts, though there are various claims without wide acceptance and it also does not include inscriptions consisting of isolated words or names from a language. An oral tradition

1.
Seal impression from the tomb of Seth-Peribsen, containing the oldest known complete sentence in Egyptian, c. 2690 BC

2.
Letter in Sumerian cuneiform sent by the high-priest Lu'enna, informing him the king of Lagash of his son's death in battle, c. 2400 BC

4.
Ox scapula inscribed with three records of divinations in the reign of Wu Ding of the Chinese Shang dynasty, c. 1200 BC

Human language
–
Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system. The scientific study of language is called linguistics, questions concerning the philosophy of language, such as whether words can represent experience, have been debated sinc

4.
Two men and a woman having a conversation in American Sign Language

Abrogans
–
It was named by German researchers after its first entry, abrogans = dheomodi. On several occasions the South Tyrolean bishop Arbeo of Freising or the Benedictine monk Kero are named as authors and this Latin-Latin glossary, the Latin Abrogans, was probably compiled in Italy of numerous older late-antiquity and early medieval glossaries. Thus arose

1.
First page of the St. Gall Codex Abrogens (Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 911) Heading: INCIPIUNT CLOSAS EX VETERE TESTAMENTO ("Here begins the commentary on the Old Testament")

Atakur inscription
–
The Atakur inscription dated 949-950 C. E. is an inscribed memorial stone with classical Kannada composition inscription. It was discovered at the Chelleshvara temple at Atakur village about 23 km from Mandya city in the Karnataka state, India. According to historians I. K. Sarma and Singh memorial stones for warriors are common in medieval India,

1.
The famous Atakur inscription (949 C.E.), a classical Kannada composition from the Western Ganga-Rashtrakuta period

Bir el Qutt inscriptions
–
Georgian inscriptions were found on a mosaic floor. Two inscriptions are dated AD430 and the third one AD532, the monastery where the inscriptions were excavated was founded or rebuilt by the Georgian philosopher and royal prince Peter the Iberian. One of the inscriptions mentions him with his father, the other inscription mentions Bacurius the Ibe

1.
Inscription 1

2.
Inscription 3

Birch bark letter no. 292
–
The birch bark letter given the document number 292 is the oldest known document in any Finnic language. The document is dated to the beginning of the 13th century and it was found in 1957 by a Soviet expedition led by Artemiy Artsikhovsky in the Nerevsky excavation on the left coast side of Novgorod. It is currently located in Novgorod City Museum

1.
Birch-bark letter No. 292

Black Book of Carmarthen
–
The Black Book of Carmarthen is thought to be the earliest surviving manuscript written solely in Welsh. It is currently part of the collection of the National Library of Wales and it is believed that the manuscript is first recorded when it came into the possession of Sir John Price of Brecon, whose work was to search the monasteries dissolved by

1.
Black Book of Carmarthen (f.4.r)

2.
Black Book of Carmarthen (f.29.v)

Bogurodzica
–
Bogurodzica is the oldest Polish hymn. It was composed somewhere between the 10th and 13th centuries, while the origin of the song is not entirely clear, several scholars agree that Adalbert of Prague is the likely author. Polish knights sang it as an anthem before the Battle of Grunwald, Bogurodzica also accompanied the coronation ceremonies of th

Cartularies of Valpuesta
–
The Cartularies of Valpuesta are two medieval Spanish cartularies which belonged to a monastery in the locality of Valpuesta in what is now the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. The cartularies are called the Gótico and the Galicano from the type of script used in each and they are housed in the National Archives of Spain. The Cartularie

1.
Fragment in Visigothic script

Dipylon Inscription
–
The Dipylon inscription is a short text written on an ancient Greek pottery vessel dated to ca.740 BC. It is famous for being the oldest known samples of the use of the Greek alphabet, the jug is attributed to the Late Geometrical Period. It is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the text is written in an archaic form of the Greek

1.
...(h)ος νῦν ὀρχεστôν πάντον ἀταλό(τατα)...

2.
... ἀταλότατα παίζει, τô τόδε...

3.
Antikythera Ephebe

Doddahundi nishidhi inscription
–
The Doddahundi nishidhi and inscription is a hero stone from Doddahundi,18 km from Tirumakudalu Narasipura in the Mysore district, Karnataka state, India. It has an undated old Kannada language inscription which historians J. F. Fleet, I. K. Sarma, rice have dated by context to 840 or 869 C. E. The hero stone has a depiction in frieze of the ritual

1.
The Doddahundi nishidahi stele depicting the death of King Neetimarga I, with old Kannada inscription dated 840 or 869 C.E.

2.
An example of a Nishidhi inscription from the 14th century with Kannada language inscription

Duenos inscription
–
The Duenos inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, variously dated from the 7th to the 5th century BC. It is inscribed on the sides of a kernos, in case a trio of small globular vases adjoined by three clay struts. It was found by Heinrich Dressel in 1880 on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, the kernos belongs to the Staatliche Museen in

1.
The Duenos inscription, as recorded by Heinrich Dressel.

Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany
–
The Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany is a document known for including the oldest written words in the Hungarian language. The document, dated to 1055, lists the lands the king donated to the newly founded Tihany Abbey and it is mostly in Latin, but contains several Hungarian words and expressions, the longest of which is feheruuaru rea

1.
Abbey church of Tihany

2.
The longest Hungarian fragment in the Latin text

Freising manuscripts
–
The Freising manuscripts are the first Latin-script continuous text in a Slavic language and the oldest document in Slovene. The manuscripts were bound into a Latin codex. Four parchment leaves and a quarter of a page have been preserved. They consist of three texts in the oldest Slovene dialect, linguistic, stylistic and contextual analyses reveal

1.
The beginning of the second Freising manuscript

Funeral Sermon and Prayer
–
The Funeral Sermon and Prayer is the oldest known and surviving contiguous Hungarian text, written by one scribal hand in the Latin script and dating to 1192–1195. It is found on f. 154a of the Codex Pray, the whole monument has two parts, the sermons text and the prayer. Not counting repeated words, there are 190 individual terms in the text, the

1.
Original manuscript in the Pray Codex

2.
Zsigmond Móricz

Gezer calendar
–
The Gezer calendar is a small inscribed limestone tablet discovered in 1908 by Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister in the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer,20 miles west of Jerusalem. Scholars are divided as to whether the language is Phoenician or Hebrew, the calendar is inscribed on a limestone plaque and describes monthly or bi-monthly pe

1.
The calendar in its current location

2.
Replica of the Gezer calendar in Israel Museum, Israel.

Glosas Emilianenses
–
The Glosas Emilianenses are glosses written in a Latin codex. These marginalia are important as early examples of writing in a form of Spanish, the anonymous author is assumed to have been a monk at the monastery now known as Suso, one of the twin monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla. The Glosses were formerly considered to include the first ins

1.
Yuso, the lower of the San Millán monasteries

2.
Page 72 of the Aemilianensis 60 codex. The gloss in the bottom right-hand margin of the page is the most extensive one in the codex.

3.
Detail of the gloss from page 72.

4.
Plaque at Yuso monastery commemorating "the first phrases in the Basque language"

Halmidi inscription
–
The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known Kannada language inscription in the Kannada script. While estimates vary slightly, the inscription is dated to between 450 CE -500 CE. The inscription was discovered in 1936 by Dr. M. H. Krishna, the Director of Archaeology of the State of Mysore, in Halmidi, a village in the Hassan district. The original

1.
A replica of the original Halmidi inscription at Halmidi village

2.
The replica of the Halmidi inscription mounted on a pedestal

3.
The Halmidi inscription transliterated into modern Kannada script

4.
The Halmidi inscription translated into modern Kannada language

Kavirajamarga
–
Kavirajamarga is the earliest available work on rhetoric, poetics and grammar in the Kannada language. It was written by the famous Rashtrakuta King Nrupatunga Amoghavarsha I, some historians believe Kavirajamarga may have been co-authored by a poet in the kings court, the Kannada language theorist Sri Vijaya. The name literally means Royal Path fo

1.
A Stanza from Kavirajamarga which praises the people for their literary skills

Kedukan Bukit inscription
–
It is the oldest surviving specimen of the Malay language, in a form known as Old Malay. It is a stone of 45 by 80 cm. This inscription is dated the year 11,02,605 Saka and these inscriptions were written in a sister system of Vatteluttu and Grantha called the Pallava alphabet, developed by ancient Tamils to write Tamil and contain numerous Sanskri

1.
The Inscription picture.

Kievian Letter
–
The Kievian Letter is an early 10th-century letter thought to be written by representatives of the Jewish community in Kiev. The letter, a Hebrew-language recommendation written on behalf of one member of their community, was part of a collection brought to Cambridge by Solomon Schechter from the Cairo Geniza. It was discovered in 1962 during a sur

1.
Khazar rulers

Myazedi inscription
–
Myazedi inscription, inscribed in 1113, is the oldest surviving stone inscription of the Burmese. Myazedi means emerald stupa, and the name of the inscription comes from a pagoda located nearby, the inscriptions were made in four languages, Burmese, Pyu, Mon, and Pali, which all tell the story of Prince Yazakumar and King Kyansittha. The primary im

Nestor's Cup
–
The term Cup of Nestor or Nestors Cup can refer to, A golden mixing cup, described in Homers Iliad, belonging to Nestor, the king of Pylos. A golden goblet, found at Mycenae, which the excavator, Heinrich Schliemann, a clay drinking vessel of the 8th century BC found at Pithekoussai, Ischia, which bears a famous inscription calling itself Nestors c

1.
The "Nestor's cup" from Mycenae

2.
The inscription

3.
Antikythera Ephebe

Novgorod Codex
–
The Novgorod Codex is the oldest book of the Rus’, unearthed on July 13,2000 in Novgorod. It is therefore older than the Ostromir Gospels, the earliest precisely dated East Slavic book, since 1932 the ancient Russian city of Novgorod has been continuously excavated by the Novgorod Archaeological Expedition started by Artemiy Artsikhovsky. Since the

1.
1st Page of the Codex at the time of Discovery

2.
An example of excavated Novgorod boardwalk, built ca. 1120

3.
Andrey Zaliznyak

4.
Reconstructed first page, Ps 75

Oaths of Strasbourg
–
The Oaths of Strasbourg were mutual pledges of allegiance between Louis the German, ruler of East Francia, and his half-brother Charles the Bald, ruler of West Francia made on 12 February 842. They are written in three different languages, Medieval Latin, Old French and Old High German, all in Caroline minuscule, the Old French passages are general

Salic law
–
Salic law, or Salian Law, was the ancient Salian Frankish civil law code compiled around AD500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The best known tenet of the old law is the principle of exclusion of women from inheritance of thrones, fiefs, the Salic laws were arbitrated by a committee appointed and empowered by the King of the Franks. Dozens of m

1.
Record of a judgement by Childebert III

2.
King Clovis dictates the Salic Law surrounded by his military chiefs.

Sinckan Manuscripts
–
The Sinckan Manuscripts refers to a series of leases, mortgages, and other commerce contracts written in the Sinckan language, they are commonly referred to as the fanzi contracts. Some are written only in a script, while others were bilingual with adjacent Han writing. The Sinckan language was spoken by the Siraya tribe that lived in what is now T

1.
A contract writing in both Chinese and the Sinckan language, 1784

Utendi wa Tambuka
–
Utend̠i wa Tambuka or Utenzi wa Tambuka, also known as Kyuo kya Hereḳali, is an epic poem in the Swahili language, dated 1728. It is one of the earliest known documents in Swahili, the Byzantines were represented by the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Heraclius. The story covers a period from 628 to 1453, Tambuka is the Swahili rendering of Tabuk,

1.
Lamu Island

Veronese Riddle
–
It was a very popular riddle in the Middle Ages and has survived into dialects to date. Discovered by Luigi Schiaparelli in 1924, it is considered the first document ever written in the Italian language along with the Placiti Cassinesi and this person is the writer himself, the monk whose business is to copy old manuscripts. The two oxen are his fi